New committee leaders vow to drive charity awareness and fundraising
THE GroceryAid Scotland branch has a new top team to lead the committee as it pursues fresh ways to raise both funds for and awareness of the charity.
The reshuffle has come about after co-chairs Jim Harper and Peter Steel announced they would be stepping down having spent nearly six years at the helm.
Now taking over as co-chairs are former branch secretary Matthew Howie, Morrisons wholesale account manager for Scotland, and Jane Blackhall, off-trade sales e-commerce execution manager with Heineken UK.
Christina Grant, field sales development manager at Mondelez International, takes over as branch secretary, while Marc Gardner, account controller at McCurrach, remains as treasurer.
The new executive team was voted in by the committee at the final GroceryAid Scotland branch meeting of 2024, held in Glasgow.
Howie told the charity volunteers present that Jim and Peter could be rightly proud of their achievements and praised them for their huge success in growing GroceryAid’s presence and fundraising in Scotland.
He said: “It is with great pride that we end 2024 and enter 2025 with this fantastic opportunity and responsibility. Knowing that we have a superbly knowledgeable and varied committee alongside us, largely put together by Jim and Peter, gives the reassurance that we will achieve great things in the future.
“As Jane and I start to meet with GroceryAid’s officials, we will work with the Scottish committee over 2025 to develop the next three to five-year strategy – ensuring that awareness is always the number one goal within Scotland.”
He also urged anyone from across the Scottish grocery and convenience channels who wanted to know more about what GroceryAid does or could do for their businesses to get in touch – email matthew.howie@groceryaid.org.uk to find out more.
For their part, Harper and Steel vowed to continue to support the branch for as long as the team felt it would be useful for them to be involved.
Meanwhile, in his treasurer’s report, Gardner revealed that the Scottish branch was set to break the £100,000 fundraising barrier for the second year running.
Once again, this had largely been achieved through the flagship Checkout Scotland music event, Just Dae It campaign, involving supporters taking on various physical and wellbeing activities such as the Kiltwalks, and raffle of dozens of luxury Christmas hampers.
